Meditation & Business

THE idea of sitting silently on a meditation mat - twice a day, like a statue - is likely to agitate the typical executive shackled to a very important schedule in stress capital Singapore.

But Mr Ng Kok Song, 62, the 'Christian friend' who taught a meditation mantra to Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew, serenely flips the perspective. Think of meditation as an antidote to the rush of the corporate world, suggests the group chief investment officer of the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC).

Mr Ng has spent 40 years working to invest Singapore's foreign reserves. For 22 years, he has been a practitioner of Christian meditation. The Catholic says meditation gives him clarity of mind, especially in times of financial crisis.

'Meditation brings calm and equanimity - not to be overelated when times are good or overdepressed when times are bad,' says Mr Ng, who meditates 25 minutes each morning, and again at night.

'I think it gives you greater clarity of mind, which helps in times of chaos and great stress, to see what's the cause of things, what's passing, what's enduring and what's really important.'